Walmart’s ad revenue jumped 31% YoY as e-commerce hit Q1 profit. Vizio boosts CTV play amid tariff tensions and a push to rival Amazon in retail media.
Walmart leadership’s cautionary comments on price hikes as a result of higher tariffs — and the Trump administration’s chastising response to the company — dominated a lot of the talk around the Q1 earnings report. Beyond the trade war back-and-forth, the quarter extended a strong run of growth for the big-box store’s retail media business, which recently integrated CTV player Vizio.
Removing Vizio from the picture, Walmart still posted impressive figures on the advertising front, with U.S. retail media arm Connect seeing revenue jump 31% YoY. Momentum in segments like advertising helped Walmart’s e-commerce business achieve profitability in Q1 for the first time. Total revenue was up 2.5% to $165.6 billion over the period, though the company fell short of analyst expectations on quarterly sales.
Walmart acquired Vizio last year for $2.3 billion, shoring up its foothold in a CTV arena that is converging with retail media. This spring’s upfronts, an occasion for publishers and platforms to pitch brands on larger ad-spending commitments, has underpinned how retail media data is increasingly being leveraged to enhance CTV and digital video campaigns.
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Vizio enriches Walmart’s capabilities in premium video while opening a deeper well of viewership data and direct brand relationships to draw on as retail media competition increases. Those assets could prove particularly valuable in the battle against Amazon, which has a far larger advertising business and more established know-how in CTV thanks to Fire TV and Prime Video.
Ensuring advertising remains a profit driver could be critical as Walmart contends with an uncertain macroeconomic picture that has soured consumer sentiment. Adweek reported last month that Walmart has already been pushing advertising partners to hike their annual spending on retail media, even though some of those brands have seen sluggish sales.
